Ben noticed a newspaper clipping on Smart N Save Cafe while we were paying for our groceries when shopping at Smart N Save at Lansdowne Mall. It is interesting that a groceries store owner ventured into restaurant business.

We decided to go for lunch at Smart N Save Cafe during Ben’s vacation day off on a week day. Smart N Save Cafe is located in the Vancouver Industrial Park Richmond at 7080 River Road, a very unlikely place for a restaurant. It is on the second floor where you can see a lighted red open sign on the photo above.

The restaurant does have a good view of the Fraser River though from it’s location.

The restaurant closes early at 6PM.

We were there before noon and there were just a couple of tables taken. It was almost full house when we left.

The menu is not big, mostly snack items, noodles and dessert. You can click on the menu to have a larger view.

The interesting thing about this restaurant is that it’s ordering system is high tech. We were given a QR code when we sat down. The server told us that we can place our order using our smart phone with a QR code reader like WeChat.  Unfortunately, Ben does not have such app on his cell phone. So, the server has to take our order manually.

Ben ordered their house combo for $9.95. It came with a breaded Pork Chop which was deep fried to crispy and a bowl of steamed rice.

The house combo also includes a Masago Cucumber Fake Crab Stick Salad.

There is an option for a drink or a soup for the house combo. Ben opted for Ice Milk Tea. Ben loves the ice milk tea which is served in a chilled mug which keeps the drink cold without ice diluting the drink.

I decided to order a few snack items instead. The above Fried Sticky Rice with preserved meat was recommended by the server. The rice was al-dante and not oily.  This is only $3.

The above Chiu Chow dumpling was also recommendation from the server. It is filled with ground pork, peanut, dried shrimp, etc. The filings give it a crunchy texture. This is $4.

Since Ben likes pork rind, I ordered a Curry Fish Balls, Radish and Pork Rind which is also $4. The curry was quite spicy.

For dessert, I ordered Walnut Soup for $2. Apparently, it is not homemade but came from a pouch packaged by Niissin. I bet we can find this in Smart N Save in Lansdowne.

From what I overheard from the conversation between  the owner and  some customers, the owner is passsionate about street food in Hong Kong.

Smart N Save Cafe accepts credit card.